


A Red Ranger's Duty

by UnicornAffair



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: Brotp!, Gen, Shattered Grid, Shattered Grid Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 10:40:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornAffair/pseuds/UnicornAffair
Summary: Lauren and Jason have to go to Corinth City to find a Dr. K before Lord Drakkon gets his hands on her and destroys one of the rangers only hopes at defeating him and his army. The two rangers have a chance to get to know one another better, and Jason learns a little more on what it means to be a red ranger.SPOILERS FOR Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Boom Comics Shattered Grid #27





	A Red Ranger's Duty

**Author's Note:**

> So I was really inspired to dig a little deeper into the Jason and Lauren scene of issue #27. I absolutely love their friendship and the idea of them bonding. They make a great brotp!
> 
> Quotes are used directly from the comic issue shattered grid #27. It's a great read! So...all credit to them for that.

An entire lifetime of training couldn’t prepare Lauren as her entire world from changed at the drop of a hat. Lord Drakkon and his  _ army _ of sentinels broke through the protective seal in a matter of seconds. Lauren’s home, a place she barely knew, was destroyed right in front of her...her team...her  _ well trained _ team of samurais were dropping like flies. A blast from a weapon and her strongest allies, her friends, her newfound  _ family _ were instantly demorphed. She never felt  _ this _ kind of intense pain radiate through her body before. Kevin, the blue ranger, the one so bound by his duty to protect the Shiba line was the one who sacrificed himself to allow Lauren to escape. 

The red samurai ranger had been rescued by  _ other _ rangers, she had to quickly wrap her head around the fact that not only were there other power rangers like herself and her team...they were  _ all  _ targets of Lord Drakkon and his army. This went beyond just the samurai team. Suddenly the task of saving her friends felt even more daunting. A  _ multiverse _ was now at stake. A full team of five  _ ‘mighty morphing’,  _ a  _ pink time force ranger,  _ and the last of the  _ samurai _ team against an army? The odds were certainly stacking against them...but even during the darkest of times, a power ranger  _ must _ fight on. Hope couldn’t be lost. 

Zordon sent out a distress call throughout the multiverse, warning the other teams. A response by a Dr. K in the city of Corinth set their next plan of motion under way. Lauren and Jason, the red and the leader of this team would be on a task to find the good doctor and help strategize their best plan against what felt like an unstoppable force. There wasn’t any time to dwell on the losses. Lauren spent years training, she would always be ready to fight, always be ready to lay down her life for the cause. Lord Drakkon  _ could not  _ win.

Jason and Lauren were warped through the grid and to the desert miles outside of the dome city. This certainly felt far from Panorama City, far from the mountains where she was trained by her masters. The coarse sand couldn’t compare to the rich greens of the forest...she missed home...even if she could return...the Shiba House had been destroyed. 

No time to dwell on that now. 

“Tyrannosaurus!” Jason called for his zord in a dramatic fashion, these certainly weren’t like the folding zords of the samurai. “Well that’s a relief” The zord had made it, the pair of red rangers would have a bit of extra firepower on their side. 

“Well. I always did want to ride a dinosaur” Lauren commented, as if she had a sense of humor. A part of her wondered if  _ her _ team had a  _ chance _ to summon their zords would they have been victorious? 

They have to keep moving forward.

Jason and Lauren sat in silence as the Tyrannosaurus took it’s grand old time getting to Cornith. One step in front of the other. A powerful zord, just not one known for it’s speed. The weight of the importance of the mission rested on their shoulders like the gold plate on Jason’s chest. Universes depended on their success. Lauren could only pray that Dr. K hasn’t been harmed, that the R.P.M rangers could hold on until they arrived with the backup. 

“So have you... _ been _ a ranger for awhile?” Jason asked, glancing over to the red ranger next to him. The silence was getting to be too much for the teenager, and if they were going to be fighting side by side, he thought it would be best if he tried to get to know the young woman next to him. A fellow  _ red _ ranger. 

“I’ve prepared for it my whole life” Lauren replied, she could recall the day when she returned to the Shiba house to take her brother Jayden’s place as the red ranger. His team didn’t even know she existed, they’ve come a long way since then.

_ Jayden.  _

He was still out there with Mentor Ji, hopefully untouched by Lord Drakkon’s forces. It was unfair to compare the two, but the boy sitting next to her reminded her of her little brother. The one she barely had a chance to get to know as she was torn away from him to learn the sealing symbol. For the greater good. 

“Really?”

“It’s…” Lauren hesitated, unsure if she wanted to go into the details of her team’s history, “A bit of a story”

“Well we  _ do _ have ten miles…” Jason trailed off, his lips upturning in a  _ hint _ of a smile. If he insisted…

“My father...was a red ranger.” Just like Lauren, just Jayden...just like Jason in this zord’s cockpit. A different kind of responsibility was placed on the shoulders of a  _ red.  _ A leader. “He was the only one able to perform a sealing ritual that would lock away the nighlok leader. Master Xandred” The bane of her dimension’s existence. A devil like no other. The  _ worst.  _ “But my father...died midway through performing it. The seal wasn’t permanent.”

Lauren had to sigh, it was never any _easier_ to explain the harsh reality of what it meant to be a Samurai Ranger. They weren’t teenagers that were chosen and plucked out by an alien and gifted powers. The Samurai Rangers were bound by their ancestors blood, generations after generations of clans fought to defend their world from the nighlok. “I grew up, _training_ to complete his work.” Isolated from the others for her safety, “I only joined the other rangers when it was _time_ to perform the ritual again”

No matter what the dimension, no matter what the powers, one thing remained true. A red ranger carried the burden of leadership. Jason’s expression softened, “Did it work?”

“No, but...we  _ were _ successful in beating Master Xandred  _ and _ the nighlok for awhile anyway” But where there was good, evil would always rear its head to balance out the scales. “In the last few weeks, the nighlok have been threatening a return. Mentor Ji and my brother Jayden went undercover to investigate. Now thanks to this “Lord Drakkon” I don’t know  _ what _ world they will return to”

And then it hit Lauren. She didn’t have time to process it all at Zordon’s base, she was only thinking of where her team was...not of her brother. Not how her brother would come back to a destroyed Shiba home with  _ no  _ trace of his sister, his best friend from childhood or the team that fought by his side. Oh  _ god.  _ Jayden of course would place all of the blame on himself, like brother like sister. That’s what Lauren would do. He was better off away from the Shiba house when the attack happened. 

Jason gritted his teeth, his hands forming into a fist, “Drakkon certainly has a way of  _ affecting _ things” His voice suddenly went deeper, darker, Lauren recognized this in her own brother when he spoke of Deker. 

This was  _ personal _ for the mighty morphin’ red ranger.

“You said that...he killed your friend” Lauren glanced over to Jason, witnessing the hardened look on the boy’s face. He was only  _ just _ a teenager and he had to face a friend being taken away from him way before his time. As power rangers they were soldiers, always fighting the good fight...sometimes good  _ didn’t _ win...and people would be lost along the way. Still, a fallen friend. Someone who didn’t even reach their  _ eighteenth  _ birthday, that would  _ always  _ be a tragedy. 

“... _ Yes.”  _ Tommy Oliver was too young to die. Lauren didn’t even  _ know _ him, just how his loss affected each member of his team. His  _ friend family.  _

“I’m sorry. I’m sure that’s incredibly painful” Lauren felt alone for  _ most _ of her life, she didn’t have friends to call her own. When she first led the samurai team they weren’t  _ hers.  _ She was simply taking Jayden’s place. They were  _ his  _ team. Now, she couldn’t  _ imagine _ her life without them. Emily’s warm smile, Mike’s total need to do backflips when he celebrated, Antonio’s love for music, Kevin’s discipline in everything he did….Mia….the love her life, “You’re blaming yourself, aren’t you?” 

Jason shrugged, “It’s...kind of what I do”  _ God, _ he reminded her so much of her baby brother. Jayden would  _ always _ blame himself when something went wrong. That he could have been better, that he should have been  _ one _ move ahead of a situation. He would always go off and try to do it all himself and then his  _ team _ would be the ones to save him. Lauren was sure Jason’s team would do the same for him in a heartbeat. 

“I understand.” Lauren looked out the cockpit window, sand...sand...and more sand. This place was a complete wasteland. 

“We...don’t know for sure what Drakkon  _ did _ with the other Samurai Rangers.” He wanted to try and lift Lauren’s spirits. Outside of Tommy...Jason still  _ had _ the rest of his team. Lauren lost all of her’s in  _ one _ swoop. “If they’re still alive. We  _ will _ find them.”

_ If _ they were still alive. 

So far the best theory Trini and Billy had to offer was that the Samurai Rangers were simply  _ imprisoned,  _ their samurizers had been dismantled leaving them powerless. Powerless to rot in a cell. While Lord Drakkon used their powers to build himself and army up to destroy other teams just like them. Lauren didn’t  _ want _ to think of what that would mean for her team. What kind of sick man was Lord Drakkon? Would he be feeding them? Nothing substantial Lauren could imagine, they were prisoners after all. Would they get opportunities to walk? Were they chained to a wall? Tortured for fun? 

Emily would be the easiest one to break. The youngest member of their team was  _ so  _ soft, so sweet, she didn’t deserve this. None of them did. Mike would try to speak up and make them take  _ him _ if it meant buying his teammate more time...more time for help to come save them. Kevin would remind the others that Lauren was  _ still  _ out there and if there was one person that could save them it would be their fearless red ranger leader. He was the rock, the one to keep everyone with a level head...to have hope...even if life looked grim behind a prison cell. 

“I know. But I can’t allow myself to worry about that right now. We need to focus on the mission at hand. There’s too much at stake”  

“That’s usually what  _ I _ say. And then...I keep worrying” Jason was young, he didn’t have the experience under his belt that Lauren did. Being a ranger was  _ so _ new to him, he was only just a kid himself. A kid that was shipped off to war, in over his head to the ugliness of the world. Dinosaur zords and cool weapons came at the price of responsibility, to others before themselves, to  _ loss,  _ to sacrifice. 

The  _ greater good.  _

“Well, worrying doesn’t help them” It doesn’t help Mia. Lauren would give  _ anything _ for the pink samurai ranger to  _ not _ be at the hands of Drakkon. That monster. Lauren couldn’t dwell on the nightmares that Mia would be facing, she just needed to keep hope that one day...one day  _ soon  _ she would be able to hold her in her arms again. “And it doesn’t help  _ us  _ save this “Dr. K” so, for the time being...I’m going to choose  _ not _ to.”

Jason chuckled, genuinely  _ laughed _ for the first time in awhile, “Right…”

“Hey, I fight demons for a  _ living.  _ Literally” Lauren used her thumb to motion to herself, the two needed to lighten up some if they wanted to keep loose for the battle up ahead. Finding Dr. K, keeping  _ her _ safe would be one step closer to getting her friends back, her family back...some semblance of normal. Lauren would see her beloved again while Jason...he could have some closure on his fallen friend. With her new friends at her side, there was a sliver of hope that they could beat this great evil. They were power rangers after all. 


End file.
